Meshek Barzilay in Neve Tzedek, Tel Aviv, is not trying to convince you to become vegan. It invites you to rethink food. This is a kitchen that does not preach but seduces, that does not relinquish luxury but redefines it.
Meshek Barzilay is not a place for “good vegan food,” but a sensory laboratory where texture and color become rhetorical tools. This is a cuisine that does not settle for replacing animal ingredients with plant-based ones, but seeks to undermine the very assumption of what “meat” is, what “cheese” is, and what “hummus” looks like in an era in which the brain is no longer a reliable ally of the tongue. The restaurant makes masterful use of illusion. Every bite unfolds along the seam between what the eye expects and what the mouth discovers. This is a cuisine of disguises, but beneath them there is not emptiness, rather depth.
Thus, for example, the absence of hummus. In its place is a lima bean Msabbaha (NIS 28) – white, smooth, with an almost silky body. This is not an alternative but an interpretation, and perhaps also a subtle critique of culinary rigidity. Everything here is complex, multi-layered, sophisticated, and most importantly – genuinely delicious, not “good for vegan.”
The peak of the evening arrives with Redefine’s “meat” cut (NIS 85). It is a moment of welcome confusion: The texture is entirely meaty, the flavor astonishingly precise. If it looks like meat, smells like meat, and tastes like meat – it isn’t necessarily meat. The award for best costume of the year undoubtedly goes to Redefine: It is not merely “similar,” it undermines the very need for similarity.
Vegetables take center stage here. And when they present an idea and drama so convincingly, even the most devoted carnivore may find themselves asking: Perhaps everything I thought I was eating was only an illusion?
Meshek Barzilay, 6 Ahad Ha’am Street, Neve Tzedek, Tel Aviv, 03-5166329 (not kosher)
First Class – At the luxurious Katzir restaurant in the Kempinski Hotel, British cuisine is dipped in the sunshine of Tel Aviv’s beaches.
In the heart of the distinguished foyer of the David Kempinski Hotel in Tel Aviv, beneath a canopy of chandeliers oscillating between European restraint and capitalist triumph, sits Katzir, a restaurant attempting the impossible: To give sex appeal to British cuisine, that grayish hybrid long regarded as an unfunny culinary joke. The chef, who arrived here from the British Isles, manages to inject his childhood dishes with a generous dose of Mediterranean mischief. He takes his mother’s kitchen, removes the London fog, and immerses it in the sun of Tel Aviv’s shores.
The crown jewel is the lamb shank (NIS 264), a hymn to technique and precision. The lamb, tender to the point of complete surrender, rests on baladi pumpkin topped with crispy pumpkin seeds and mint that adds an intelligent twist, all bathed in a coffee and cardamom vinaigrette. This creation, a meticulous balancing act of flavors, would not only elevate the chef to the MasterChef finale but bring tears to the judges’ eyes.
Before that, we sampled the “Lion’s Mane” (NIS 88), a meaty forest mushroom in porcini broth, proving that even without meat it is possible to achieve profound depth. Biltong bruschetta (NIS 72) is a nod to South Africa, with dried meat, a spread of charred peppers, and smoked thyme mayonnaise – a bite of pure pleasure. It should be noted that the pricing is very high, and still, Katzir is a complete experience, including a sommelier and a professional, knowledgeable, attentive, and intelligent service staff who know how to tailor the experience to each diner. This is not tourist class, not even business, but first class.
Tongue corned beef (NIS 78) is served on Ashkenazi latkes with schmaltz mayonnaise. The chef’s talent is evident in taking a diasporic Jewish-European raw material and turning it into a modern, sexy bite. Another stroke of brilliance is the foie gras escalope (NIS 162), a decadent dish served on toasted brioche with Chambord – black raspberry liqueur. The rich fattiness of the liver is cut by the sweetness of the blackberries scattered on top. This is a classic execution that reminded us we are in a hotel that honors its guests with culinary aristocracy.